Restoring 10ft dish

[FTA4PA]

I looked up the quikrete 1101 spec page and it says “Curing should be started as soon as possible and should continue for a period of 5 days in warm weather at 70F (21C) or higher or 7 days in colder weather at 50 - 70F (10 - 21C)”. As I mentioned in my previous post temperature here will staying around 10C for next few days so maybe I’ll have to wait

Definitely don't rush it. You don't want to undo your hard work.

 

[primestar31]

Just lay the empty paper bags from the Quikcrete over the cement bunched around the pole, and wet them with water every so often. Let them sit there for at least 1 week. It makes a humid condition right there, and keeps the top from drying out sooner than the bottom.

Works perfectly.

 

[Andyboy90]

Just lay the empty paper bags from the Quikcrete over the cement bunched around the pole, and wet them with water every so often. Let them sit there for at least 1 week. It makes a humid condition right there, and keeps the top from drying out sooner than the bottom.

Works perfectly.

Its really humid here right now and we wont see any sun for the next few day so I don't think I have to worry about the top drying out sooner than bottom. Also it will be raining for majority of the day today

 

[R.C.]

That would be perfect but I don't have the tools or know anybody with the tools to do that. And for the other part I will be using few U-bolts to make sure the pole doesn't spin

I may be too late with my comment, but if I'm not, you ''Definitely'' need some type of tab or bolt on the pipe that will be in the concrete. If you don't have access to a welder, you could drill holes straight through the pipe & put a length of threaded rod through the pipe. I'd do it in a couple of places & maybe at a right angle to each other. Use nuts to tighten the rods to the pipe & maybe put some large washers (maybe fender washers) on the ends of the rods & hold them in place with nuts. The rods only need to extend a 3 or 4 inches beyond the external wall of the pipe. As far as the size of the rods, I wouldn't use anything smaller than 1/2in. threaded rod. I've lost count of how many dishes I'd put in or repaired self-installed dishes. If the homeowner (the self-installer) didn't weld at least a 4 to 6in. long X 2in. wide piece of 1/4in. thick steel plate to the pipe around a foot or so from the bottom of the pipe, it'll turn in the concrete. Occasionally we'd use factory made poles in an install & that's about the size of the tab & the location it was welded on them. To be honest, the 2 threaded rod setup might be better if you're putting the dish up in an area that's liable to catch a lot of wind.

 

[Andyboy90]

I may be too late with my comment, but if I'm not, you ''Definitely'' need some type of tab or bolt on the pipe that will be in the concrete. If you don't have access to a welder, you could drill holes straight through the pipe & put a length of threaded rod through the pipe. I'd do it in a couple of places & maybe at a right angle to each other. Use nuts to tighten the rods to the pipe & maybe put some large washers (maybe fender washers) on the ends of the rods & hold them in place with nuts. The rods only need to extend a 3 or 4 inches beyond the external wall of the pipe. As far as the size of the rods, I wouldn't use anything smaller than 1/2in. threaded rod. I've lost count of how many dishes I'd put in or repaired self-installed dishes. If the homeowner (the self-installer) didn't weld at least a 4 to 6in. long X 2in. wide piece of 1/4in. thick steel plate to the pipe around a foot or so from the bottom of the pipe, it'll turn in the concrete. Occasionally we'd use factory made poles in an install & that's about the size of the tab & the location it was welded on them. To be honest, the 2 threaded rod setup might be better if you're putting the dish up in an area that's liable to catch a lot of wind.

I have read on this forum about atleast one person who used cheap muffler clamps to hold the pole in concrete for all his installations. I have a thick u-bolt tightened on the pole in concrete. The dish will be low in height with wooden fence all around. Not really concerned about the wind

 

[Magic Static]

to the forum R.C.
Always a good idea. You never want to redo something that needs to be permanent.

That said: I have a friend here in town that has been a satellite installer since the 80's and retired now. The guy who has a junkyard of satellite dishes. He tells me in all his years of doing C-Band dishes he has never dug more than 3 feet and never used anti-rotation devices. And claims to have never had one slip.

 

[Andyboy90]

Update: So its been over 3 days now since the concrete job and the pole is still standing strong at 90 degrees. Sometimes it fluctuates upto 89.8 at some points but I guess that’s within the margin of error. The concrete looks dry from the top and hopefully it has dried up all the way to the bottom. Weather forecast looks better and tomorrow seems to be a sunny day. I need a suggestion from you guys. My buddy is not available to help tomorrow and I want to get it done asap. I will ask my gf to help me with mounting the assembled dish on the pole but the panel and mount assembly seems to be a 2 person task (atleast to me). Would I be able to install all the the panels and the mount all by myself or should I wait for my friend’s days off.

 

[primestar31]

I wouldn't install it yet. 3 days is nowhere near long enough, and the wind load on the dish could make your pole lean over further before it hardens. Just hold out a bit longer.

I'd never install a C-band dish on a pole sooner than 7 full days of at least 70 degree weather for curing.

Is it possible for 1 person to do it? Sure! However it's much safer for a minimum of two.

 

[Andyboy90]

I wouldn't install it yet. 3 days is nowhere near long enough, and the wind load on the dish could make your pole lean over further before it hardens. Just hold out a bit longer.

I'd never install a C-band dish on a pole sooner than 7 full days of at least 70 degree weather for curing.

Is it possible for 1 person to do it? Sure! However it's much safer for a minimum of two.

Ok I will leave it alone for a few more days and probably work on it on Monday

 

[JFOK]

Andyboy90,

The posters here have been a great resource of info for me, even though I have 28 years of FTA experience.
You're wise to take their advice and take your time. Get it done right the first time. Don't rush a good thing. You'll be "on the air" in no time.
As for help, its always good to have an extra set of hands available...it makes for easy and more importantly, safe work.
Plus, its also good to have a second set of eyes to help prevent you from possibly overlooking an important step.

John

 

[Andyboy90]

I finally got it done The edges are almost fully flush. I know I still have to clean it. I will get a step ladder and a brush sometime tomorrow to clean the dirt. I will need a longer wire for the actuator to bring it to my living room. I will start testing the signal probably tomorrow morning and will update you guys.

 

[Andyboy90]

I ran into a small problem. I am trying to move the Von Weise actuator with a Vbox II (ASC1 on its way). The actuator only moves about an inch to east and it kept going towards west. Ofcouse I stopped it before it almost went in to prevent damage. What am I missing here? I will attach a picture to show how far it goes

 

[Magic Static]

The hardware limit switches are out of adjustment. The actuator motor was probably run without it being installed. Run it east till it stops then unhook the actuator from the dish end and unscrew the shaft all the way out to where the east limit should be. Reattach to the dish. You will probably find the west limit back to where it should be also.

 

[Andyboy90]

The hardware limit switches are out of adjustment. The actuator motor was probably run without it being installed. Run it east till it stops then unhook the actuator from the dish end and unscrew the shaft all the way out to where the east limit should be. Reattach to the dish. You will probably find the west limit back to where it should be also.

Should i manually rotate the actuator arm all the way out and then install it back?

 

[Magic Static]

Should i manually rotate the actuator arm all the way out and then install it back?

Yes.

 

[Andyboy90]

Update: I setup declination and elevation angles as per the chart and I can see everything I have tried so far (99, 101, 107). I will do tuning and tweaking tomorrow but all I can say at this moment is that NASA UHD looks so stunning

 

[ftageekyyc]

Go to know! You're encouraging me to put mine up...

 

[Andyboy90]

Go to know! You're encouraging me to put mine up...

You should go for it

 

[Andyboy90]

Update: I did some tuning to the angles and fd adjustment and now I can lock onto pretty much every available tp on all satellites from 87w-133w. The only sat available to me east of 87W would be 58W but I don't want to break the actuator trying to get there.

 

[tdti1]

Just make sure not to pop it out the tube but if you set your limits you should have nothing to worry about, if there is nothing on the lower end you can play with the clamp to basically make your first bird near the limit on that end. Some dishes I set up with friends when the dish went to far the bar would come close to the dish, we just extended the bar welding a little adapter and we were able to move much future on the arc. It's very fun to play with the dish, but once you are pretty happy, just leave it, in 2-3 years you will probably need to re-peak so don't go nuts, I've had my dish near perfect then mess it all up trying to get it aligned even better lol.

Remember the feed alignment is also very important, make sure it is straight and firing right in the middle of the dish. Have fun!